Botany

The United States National Herbarium was founded in 1848, when the first collections were accessioned from the United States Exploring Expedition (50,000 specimens of 10,000 species). Current holdings total 5 million specimens, making this collection among the ten largest in the world representing about 8% of the plant collection resources of the United States. The herbarium is especially rich in type specimens (@110,000).

Further Your Research

The plant collections of the Department of Botany are among the most important worldwide. This vast and intensely managed collection of over 5 million specimens represents a premier national and international resource.